Cleveland.com (June 9th 2000)
Gwen Stefani Runs Rings Around Herself In ‘Saturn’
After 2+ years on the road to promote No Doubt's breakthrough 1995 album "Tragic Kingdom," Gwen Stefani came home and realized that she wasn't just a girl. She was all grown up.
"You spend your whole life wondering what you're gonna be, how you're gonna get through school and what you're gonna do," the perky, magenta-mopped singer said by phone last week from Los Angeles.
"Then, before you know it, you're doing it," she said. "This is me now. That's a bit shocking and confusing.
"I thought, wow, 'I'm nothing like I thought I would be.' Yet I'm so much more. But what about all that other stuff? What about all those dreams I had of this and that?"
Stefani, 30, grapples with those questions on No Doubt's new album, "Return of Saturn." The pop-rock band - which also includes Tom Dumont on guitar, Adrian Young on drums and Stefani's ex-boyfriend Tony Kanal on bass - performs Wednesday at Nautica Stage.
In the wake of the last tour, Stefani had an identity crisis.
"I was a bit lost," she admitted between sips of tea, nursing a sore throat after a rigorous rehearsal session. "I didn't know which Gwen was the real one. I thought some of the Gwens might still be on tour. It was a very confusing time for me, not my favorite part of my life."
Domestic bliss is a recurring theme on "Return of Saturn," although the lyrics about settling down and starting a family in songs like "Marry Me" and the country-tinged single "Simple Kind of Life" have been widely misunderstood, according to Stefani.
"That's the part everyone keeps getting wrong - 'Oh, Gwen's getting broody and she wants to have kids and she wants to beg Gavin to marry her,'" she said, referring to current boyfriend Gavin Rossdale, of the British rock group Bush.
"It's nothing like that," Stefani said. "It's more about the idea of maybe not wanting that or being scared of that.
"For me, the band is everything. So a lot of other normal things like relationships or family, all that stuff gets neglected. ... You have to be very selfish and self-centered to do what I do. I am very much those things. If you could spend two days with me and see what my life is like, it's insane. It's totally unnatural. I'm totally overworked and totally focused on the band. It's a lot of pressure."
The warm and fuzzy guitars, brisk synthesizers and bouncy grooves throughout "Return of Saturn" are a throwback to the new wave sound that was popular when the members of No Doubt were in high school.
"I grew up in the '80s," Stefani said. "It was a really cool time because there was a lot of experimentation with new instruments, all these weird keyboard sounds.... Now we're just trying to go back and hold on to a little bit of our youth."
No Doubt came together in late 1986 amid the thriving ska scene in Orange County, Calif. The group's self-titled debut album was released in 1992, followed three years later by "Beacon Street Collection."
The original lineup included Stefani's older brother Eric on keyboards. He quit in 1994, just before the band's third album brought superstardom. "Tragic Kingdom" sold 15 million copies, spurred by the hits "I'm Just a Girl," "Spiderwebs" and "Don't Speak," a ballad about the breakup between Stefani and Kanal.
"When Tony and I split up, I had something to say," Stefani said. "I had a story to tell. I was just blossoming as a writer at that point.
"Last time, I was just kind of fumbling upon things. It was way different this time. I was inspired by a lot of writers. It was like, wow, listen to how Joni Mitchell does that. Or look at that book that Sylvia Plath wrote. That's amazing how she can express herself."
So far, "Tragic Kingdom" is proving to be a tough act to follow. "Return of Saturn" has sold 605,000 copies since it came out in April, according to SoundScan.
Stefani said creativity is more important than commercial success for the band at this point. "This record was all about trying to evolve as songwriters, to make something we could be proud of. ... I think we accomplished that."
Her No. 1 fan approves of No Doubt's latest effort, too.
"Gavin really likes it," Stefani said. "I don't know if he was such a huge fan of the band before, being the rock guy that he is. This time around, he feels really proud of me.
"He's probably not gonna be super-excited about the reality of some of the songs. But you can't edit yourself. You can't hold back. You just have to get inside and dig out whatever is in there."